114 Some Account qfilie Northern Light-houses, 



to say that there is no mode of producing oU-gas either so effec- 

 tive or so economical as by means of the Argand burner. The 

 same arguments which hold good for the use of gas for domestic 

 purposes do not apply to light-houses. Here there is a com- 

 plete arrangement, — the keepers are professionally adepts in the 

 management of lamps, and should a drop of oil be spilt, the 

 floor is covered with painted floor-cloth to receive it. Nor must 

 we omit to notice the great attention paid to the construction of 

 the Argand light-house burners: they are tipped with silver, to 

 prevent the waste and imperfection to which copper is subject 

 from the excessive heat of the burner *. 



In speaking of the humane and proper arrangements of the 

 Light-house Board, we may notice that a pilots' guard-room is 

 provided at the several light-house stations, where these useful 

 men have their rendezvous. In the event also of shipwreck near 

 any of the light-house stations, the unfortunate seamen are not 

 only lodged, but have been supplied with clothes and money to 

 carry them to their respective .homes. In this way it has occa- 

 sionally fallen to the lot of the keepers of the Northern Light- 

 houses to save the lives of perishing seamen, and not unfrequently 

 to succour exhausted fishermen and pilots when driven by stress 

 of weather to these lone places of abode for safety and shelter. 

 In these varied forms, it will not be too much to suppose that 

 the practice of protecting the navigator in distress, which is said 

 to have formed a chief part of the design of the Fire Towers 

 and Nautical Colleges of the Ancients, is thus in some measure 

 restored. 



In our account of the progress of improvements upon the 

 lights of the Scotch coast, it is not perhaps necessary for us to 

 do more than simply to have mentioned the great undertaking 

 of the Bell Rock Light-house, the details of which occupy the 

 large volume now before us. This is a structure, the erection 

 of which should ever be coupled with the highest eulogium on 

 the Commissioners of the Northern Light-houses, for their pub- 

 lic spirit and patriotic energies, and which will be a lasting mo- 

 nument of fame to all who were in any way engaged in its exe- 

 cution. Like the Eddystone, it is built upon a sunk rock twelve 

 miles at sea ; but it may be noticed as a difference in the situa- 



• May we not hence conclude, that the silver lamps of the Jewish Temple 

 were substantially for use as well as ornament ? 



